Markfed to pump in Rs 25 crore for setting up canneries plant

State owned cooperative Markfed is all set to pump in Rs 25 crore for setting up an ultra modern canneries plant in the district with an eye of targeting the domestic market through launching of new product portfolio including spices and pickles.

“11.5 acres of land at Churwali village in Adampur for the upcoming canneries plant has already been procured and tender for the ultra modern machinery apart from constructing pre-fabricated infrastructure would be floated soon so that plant could be made operational by end of September this year”, Managing Director of the Markfed, Dr Kamaljit Singh Sra, told Hindustan Times on the sidelines of launching new products of spices and pickles here today.

“A plant of bottled mineral water under its brand 'Sohna' with the cost of Rs 3 crore would also be installed by the Markfed”, he said adding that by the time plant is operational, manufacturing of spices and pickles would be outsourced under strict vigil of quality control.

Currently the annual turnover the packed food is just Rs 15 crore with major share of export but through aggressive marketing of products in the domestic market, it is targeted to have four times growth within next three years through optimum use of upcoming plant for production, MD said.

“So far the domestic market was untapped by the Markfed and emphasize was only on the export, but keeping in mind the growth of Multi-National-Companies (MNCs) of similar trade in the Indian market, it has been decided to launch the packed food in domestic market”, he said, adding that a big marketing campaign with massive display of products has already been planned.

MD claimed that the scope of “Ready-To-Eat products in the domestic market , where, over a period of years, a paradigm shift has been noticed wherein join families have become nucleus families and transition has been to working cojples, working individuals in the local metropolitan towns.

Initially, the emphasis would be made on availability of products in metropolitan cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata, and later on distributors would be appointed in entire country, he said.

Unveiling business plan of the cooperative, Sra said that in the coming year new range of products including snacks (namkeens) would also be launched.